Akwu, Sunday Victor is a Nigerian Poet and Critic. He holds a degree in English and Literary Studies from Kogi State University. He authored, Breaking the Cycle of Silence, and edited, New Voices from the Confluence: An Anthology of Creative Writing. His academic papers have appeared in ONA: Journal of English Language and Literature and ANYIGBA Journal of Arts and Humanities.

China of Words

The red meat of watermelon stared me in the eyes
Munching a stick of carrot and garden egg
I savoured the taste as my limbs stretched
And my jaws munched the more

A glass of water followed, the hardened esophagus flattened
Like a deflated tube

I saw him, his clothes ragged
A calabash in his outstretched hands
By the corners of his eyes
Mucous and a horde of flies
Made a halo about his head
Ringworms spread crooked foliages
All over his head
‘Allah give you to give us!’

Soup and amala left for the dogs doled him
In a filthy corner, his seat crashed
As he mouthed the slimy soup into salivary hole
As swarm of flies flipped around the mouths of sores
On his ankles and knees

The corner of my eyes caught her,
Plump and succulent, a slave of food
She beckoned all food hawkers:
Roasted corn, yam, fish,
Bottled zobo, kunu,
Leathered amala, moimoi
Her mouth is an open lavatory
‘I am watching my weight,’
She gobbled popcorn into a hole in her head!

Then I returned home,
A shelf of food stared me in the eyes:
Shakespeare, Milton, Achebe, Soyinka, Bible
Spoonful of lines into my spirit
And my soul soars high

The china of words I eat everyday
Makes me glow and grow taller than the tallest iroko
Makes me fit and fatter than the fattest elephant
Makes me sane and see farther than the sagest seer

The china of food I eat is to build my body
The china of words:
To hold the spirit and soul in matrimony
Not bread
Not bread alone
But words
Words too are cuisines
Not by bread alone but by words we see the sun!